My mother has just informed me that she wants to move to a retirement village. I looked around her home and was gob-smacked by all the cutter under the home.
I would be grateful to anyone who can share some experience about decluttering.
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I had todo the same for my mother. It’s very exhausting and time consuming.
This is a little of what we did by trial and error.
- Give yourself plenty of time as it will take much longer than you think in our case 6 months on and off.
- If your mother is helping then it may take you even longer
- We call it clutter but to your mother it will be memories and this is why it takes so much effort.
- Try and create four piles, 1. Keep, 2. Tip, 3. Family, 4. Second hand stores.
Every week we would try and get rid of the piles so we could start fresh when we wanted to.
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Hi Abarnes. If your siblings and other family members are helping to declutter then try this, It works like a conveyor belt.
Firstly designate tasks for your people, pickers, sorters, tippers.
1-2 people get the items.
1-2 people are sorting. This is where your mother can help if she is able.
1-2 people are tipping/saving the clutter.
For our family we did this every second Sunday after a family lunch until we finished.
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Hi @ABarnes. If you are still decluttering and getting rid of rubbish?
This may be of help. Here is some useful tips for loading rubbish in trailers and large bins.
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Try and saw up large pieces of timber and lay them flat. You will find you will be able to put more rubbish in, depending upon the weight. Don’t forget to pump up the tyres first!
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I used to do this on all my building projects. Put a strong tarp down on the back of the ute or trailer before you throw the rubbish on. When you come to the tipping, get two people to pull it all off in one go. (big time saver) Now a days, tilt-trailers come in-to there own as well.
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Check out your local landfill/tip tipping charges, some will charge either by weight or size (trailer, ute) do some research on charges.
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If you get a bin delivered and it’s parked on the road make sure you load it fully as soon as you get it. Otherwise you will come out the next morning and see it full.
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Hi @chris-newkids. @ABarnes. We tried to leave some items in the home for the new owners. But the real estate agent said that we would create more value if we got rid of it. And the agent was right. When Mums home went on the market it looked the best the family had ever seen it. It is worth all the effort to declutter.
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Thanks for all the help. We are in the stage of decluttering with Moms stuff on trademe and lots of trips to the second hand shops.
If you live in Manawatū this link might be of help!
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Hi @ABarnes. Great link. Thanks on behalf of our community!
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I also found this great site.
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Hi @ABarnes. Thanks for the link.
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This article might be helpful.
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Another area for decluttering has to be the garage or the large shed. I have noticed over the years that many home large garages are full of stuff! It would be cool to hear from people who have done this?
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Hi @Hopefullone. A good case in point. In 2013-2015 Queensland, Australia I witnessed that many of new homes built in a large subdivision’s didn’t park their cars (2-3) inside their standard two car garage.
As this put various issues on new housing subdivision (It created a so called messy look and was less appealing to renters and new home buyers) I investigated and found nearly all the garages were just packed with household items that couldn’t fit in the home because they had gone out and brought all new house items.
Perhaps this is reason of the strong growth of the storage shed industry?
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This article provides a more human psychology into downsizing
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Hi community, found this excellent article on decluttering.
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